I was only guessing at direction when I blundered into blogging in February of 2006. Not wanting to be boxed-in, I chose the most non-committal of titles: Monte Asbury’s Blog.

It has taken years to develop a sense of why I am here. I’m sure it will continue to change. But it looks like, now, I know enough to express a more descriptive name. The About, the profile, and other explanatory pieces will catch up soon; they’ll describe more of what it means.

Most surprising, in this three-year blogging experience, has been the warmth and the brilliance of the friends met on the web. Thank you for what you have taught me, fellow readers and writers.

I pray that The Least, First will be a source of fuel for the fires that so obviously burn in your hearts. Your thoughts have often ignited mine, and I am grateful.

Now here is something that amazes me. Sitemeter maps the location of the servers through which people come to visit this blog (though it doesn’t know who or precisely where they themselves are). This map shows the previous 100 visits as of mid-afternoon CST on September 15, 2007 (the most recent visitor’s server is red, the next nine are green, and the rest are white).

I never imagined that so many friendships would come from comparing notes with readers and bloggers on three or four continents. Thank you, friends!

We find an article on the web. A paragraph in it is excellent. We bookmark (or favorite) the article. Now we have a hundred bookmarks. And we’ve long since forgotten the location of the the pithy paragraph.

Maybe you’ve mastered this, but I stumbled onto something that might help me: Clipmarks looks like it will clip, email, share, post directly, even print any part of a story. Here’s a 45-second video.

Clipmarks – Clip it, Save it, Share it, Blog it

Might give us faster, more concise research. Sound good?
I’m looking forward to what you find.

Diggocrats say that it’s a “digital media democracy” or a “user-driven social content website.” Woowoo. Hang on a minute.

Here’s how it works.
1. You get a free account at digg.
2. You read something on the web that you hope others will read.
3. You digg it with a simple click on its “digg this” button (or, if it’s not listed with digg, you list it and digg it – very easy).
4. Others scan the lists of stories coming onto digg, and read the ones that interest them. They digg.
5. Things bubble up – more diggs, more people think, “Hmm, maybe that’s one I should check out.”